STATE OF CALIFORNIA GRAY DAVIS, Governor

PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION

505 VAN NESS AVENUE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102-3298

H-24

8/2/2001

July 16, 2001

TO: PARTIES OF RECORD IN CASE 00-08-035

Enclosed is the draft decision of Administrative Law Judge Karen Jones. This draft decision modifies the settlement proposed by parties. The defendants are required to pay interest on the refunds disbursed to the mobile home parks' sub-metered customers.

When the Commission acts on the draft decision, it may adopt all or part of it as written, amend it, or set it aside and prepare its own decision. Only when the Commission acts does the decision become binding on the parties.

Pursuant to Rule 77.7(f)(9), comments on the draft decision shall be filed and received by July 30, 2001 and no reply comments will be accepted.

In addition to service by mail, parties should send comments in electronic form to those appearances and the state service list that provided an electronic mail address to the Commission, including ALJ Jones at kaj@cpuc.ca.gov. Finally, comments must be served separately on the Assigned Commissioner, and for that purpose I suggest hand delivery, overnight mail, or other expeditious methods of service.

/s/ LYNN T. CAREW

Lynn T. Carew, Chief

Administrative Law Judge

LTC:eap

Attachment

ALJ/KAJ/eap * DRAFT H-24

8/2/2001

Decision DRAFT DECISION OF ALJ JONES (Mailed 7/16/2001)

BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

The Utility Reform Network, the California Mobile Home Resource and Action Association, and Does 1-100, Complainants, vs. Four Seasons Mobile Home Park, The Franciscan Mobile Country Club, Rancho Santa Teresa Mobile Home Estates, Diablo Mobile Lodge, Friendly Village Mobile Home Park, Pepper Tree Estates Mobile Home Park, Spanish Ranch Mobile Home Park Number 1, Riverbend Mobilehome Park, Hilton Mobile Home Park, Hillview Mobile Home Park, and Does 1-100, Defendants.

Case 00-08-035 (Filed August 23, 2000)

DECISION APPROVING SETTLEMENT, WITH MODIFICATION

I. Summary

This decision modifies a settlement (the full text of the settlement is attached as the Appendix to this decision) between The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and the California Mobile Home Resource and Action Association (CMHRAA) and ten defendant mobile home parks captioned above. The complainants charged that defendants were not in compliance with Public Utilities Code Section 739.5,¹ which (among other things) prohibits gas master meter customers from retaining natural gas rebates they receive from a gas utility.

Parties arrived at a settlement once TURN and CMHRAA were satisfied that the defendant mobile home parks had disbursed all of the gas rebates to their sub-metered customers. The defendant mobile home parks also agreed to pass on any future gas rebates in a timely manner.

We find the settlement to be reasonable, except for the fact that it specifically provides that no interest will be paid on the moneys returned to the mobile home parks' sub-metered customers. This allows the mobile home park owners to unjustly enrich themselves. Therefore, we modify the settlement to provide for the payment of interest. The parties are given until July 30, 2001 to indicate whether they will adopt this modification to the settlement. If all parties do not agree to the settlement modification, we will order further hearings in this matter.